Lunar Eclipse

Last night Uncle Richie and I stayed up "way past our bed-time" to watch the lunar eclipse. Below are some photos from the event. No, we didn't take these, though Rich did make a valiant effort to do so with his really nice digital camera. I tried too, with my ordinary cell phone camera. Both were about equally bad.

These pictures are pretty accurate representations of what I have seen in the past. However, last night there were increasing amounts of clouds until the critical moments when the eclipse was total, and we should have seen the beautiful red color. Instead, we saw nothing but a steadily blurring white disk. 

We did have a fun time talking about the end of the world and what kind of celestial body displacement would bring about some of the things described in the scriptures. Plus it was a fairly warm night, so it was nice

This last picture here, as pretty as it is, really doesn't do justice to the kind of  red that comes with this kind of eclipse. I've seen it absolutely blood red before. A very haunting sight.

The next full lunar eclipse is in October this year - and there will be two more next year. The kind of frequency hasn't happened in the past 25-30 years. Exciting stuff

Squirrel!

We have a bunch a squirrels living in the trees in the field beyond our back fence. I really don't like having them running through our yard and trees. They are often noisy, and they leave their walnuts in the lawn (and I step on them when I mow it). I have issues with rats who have furry tails, as well as those with bare tails.

On the other hand, Melody thinks they're cute and likes to watch them scurry about. So we were standing in the kitchen on this beautiful, sunny afternoon, and we see this squirrel chewing on a walnut. I decided to shot some video.

Keep you eyes focused on the center of the video. He's there

SQUEEZE ME!

We were out running a couple of errands this morning and I noticed the signs were up on the new Squeeze-Inn here. They're Open! Well, they weren't open right then (it was 10:30 and they open daily at 11:00), but everything is looking good.

For those who might remember, this used to be the site of Pancho Burgers on Cooper Ave. across the street from Staples. And for the REALLY old timers, it used to be a foster's freeze type of place across the street from the Sutter Supermarket. Now that's goin' back a ways.

Unlike the Squeeze-Inn in Roseville, and almost like the original in Sacramento, this place has no indoor seating. There's a nice little courtyard out back (again, not quite like the one in Sac) so you can sit down.

It looks like Trevor and Michelle will be the first out-of-towners to be treated by us there. (I'm going next Friday.) The rest of you will get the treat when you come - the sooner the better.

A Tale of two Days

It was the best of times and more of the best of times... No kidding. We had nothing but fun with Nate and Kim since their arrival three days ago until their departure today. They played with Mom while I finished the week at work Friday. We watched some Olympics, read Valentines Day cards, and eat some GREAT steaks cooked by Nate that evening. The master chef and the table setting (complete with Martinelli's already in the glasses) will give you some idea of the event, but not of the fantastic taste! And it was nearly as good as left-overs.

Saturday we all drove up to Malakoff Diggins and did some hiking. I was worried that we might find a lot of mud (the red, permanent staining kind), but the trails were just dry enough to keep us clean, and damp enough to keep the dust away. We parked the car at Hillar tunnel (the entrance of which is shown below) and hiked over the hill because there was too much water to hike through it. Usually, that's the highlight of the trip.

We walked along the rim trail and saw the massive hole carved out by years of hydraulic mining from different perspectives. I remember being told by a college professor back in the early 70's that this "moonscape" would never heal. but here we are only 40 year later, and you can hardly see  

This was the best shot of the day. Hiking back along the road from No. Bloomfield (where we had hiked and looked around at the buildings, abandoned facilities, and museums).  The reflection in the pond is really nice.

Here's a panoramic shot of the diggins you can download to get the full effect.

Sunday was Ward Conference in Loma Rica, and since Mom and I both had assignments there, we dragged Kim and Nate along - and they went willingly even though it meant hearing me speak.

Monday we had to put Nate & Kim on the plane back to AZ, so we spent the day tromping around the Crocker Art Gallery (free admission, and really fun to see the old section), and Old Sacramento. I didn't take any pictures (except of a couple of turtles sunning themselves on a log in the Sacramento River), but Mom got this one of us in front of the Capital building.

This photo is actually from Saturday, but it seemed a good way to wrap this up. The name of the game the whole time Nate & Kim were with us was "how can we out-do the last meal." Everything we ate (with the exception of a very poor sandwich sop in Old Sac) was outstanding, with the winner being the stakes Nate cooked Friday night. But a close runner-up was the burgers at Squeeze-Inn. Just look at that happy man!

We can't wait to visit with them again.

Rainy Day Schedule

After our state-wide fast for rain last Sunday, we've had three days of it this week. Wednesday there was light rain off and on all day. Friday was good and rainy all day. But today has been wet, wet, wet! Hard rain much of the day, never completely stopping, and windy too. A real storm.

So after sitting around the house all day watching a little bit of the Olympics and thinking about what to say tomorrow in the two Ward Conferences I have scheduled, I went for a walk. I donned my foul-weather gear and real leather Indiana Jones hat, and ventured out into the storm. It was lots of fun walking around the neighborhood and stepping in puddles (does anyone remember the "Muddy Mouse" story?).

We are ever so grateful for the rain. It is only the beginning of what is needed to make up for the extremely dry few years we've had recently. This kind of weather usually starts at least a month ago (well, a month and three years ago), but we're happy it's here now.

February in California

February in California

This is the time of year that I love California.  Most other places are still in the middle of winter and here it is SPRING! Even with  the drought, (which hopefully will be replaced by much prayed for rain) things are getting pretty here.

Primroses seem to survive anything, even when the snails gobble them up in the fall, they come back.

I pruned the camellia bush way back last year, but fortunately didn't kill it.

Actually these pansies have been year-rounders, the blooms just got smaller during the summer.

Daffodils are the best!

You can't really see very well in this photo, but the rosemary bush has a ton of purple flowers.  As pretty as it is, the best thing is still its smell!

Fort Bragg in the Winter Time

After a fun week visiting with Chris and Lorna and their family for Christmas, and a few more days with David, we had a quiet News Year's Eve - then a big day at the temple (our annul Stake Temple Day) on January 1st. By the time all that was over, Mom and I were ready for a few days to ourselves. So she went her way and I went mine... just kidding.

We took a trip to Fort Bragg (together), where we hadn't been since the Christmas vacation debacle of 2003. You all well remember the brief visit (in the pouring rain) to Wages Creek., but this time was quite different. We had absolutely gorgeous weather the whole three days. (There are some advantages to being in the middle of a drought.) Melody even got to see some whales breach as she stood on the shore watching through the binoculars. 

Every day was split between walking along the shores around Fort Bragg, and walking around the second-hand stores in town. (Sorry, no pictures of those.) I really like the photo on the left. Makes me think of Hitchcock's "The Birds." I really like the one on the right because of who's in it. We didn't find a whole lot of stuff worth buying in the thrift shops, but we had fun and the time spent on the beaches was well worth it.

On one of our forays out of town we visited the Cabrillo Point Light House, which is still operational. The picture below the lighthouse is actually from the lighthouse keeper's home. It was pretty interesting how they had restored everything.

The hotel we stayed at gave us a free round of miniature golf at the place next door. It really wasn't as chilly as Melody looks, but this was the end of the game and the sun was going down. She did really well, beating me on several holes. But I did get a hole in one (the 8th). We had a blast!

We took Nate's approach to traveling (i.e. find as many good places to eat as you can, and hit them all) and were never disappointed. Cafe's, deli's, a home-style restaurant, the hand-made ice cream shop, and the place below that had a train in the center of it. No kidding. It was our last day there and we shared a bowl of clam chowder and a fried ham and Australian Cheddar cheese sandwich on grilled sourdough. Wow!

Believe it or not, some of the best food we ate was from the local Harvest supermarket. They had a great salad and soup bar with daily themed offerings of other food (Indian, Fish, Italian, etc.) The soups were fantastic. The fish was great. The salads were wonderful. And we supplemented each meal with bread and treats from the store's bakery. Okay, maybe the food tasted better because we were hungry, and at the end of the day we didn't feel like being out any more. So we'd pick out our meals and take them home to eat in our room `while we watched movies on TV. All this, and being together, was like heaven. 

The sunset from our first night there. We really ought to do this kind of thing more often.